


Convergence 2/7

by Soledad



Series: Beautiful Minds [2]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Torchwood
Genre: F/M, Five Times, Smart Is The New Sexy, beautiful minds, icemanverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 22:31:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2205429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Soledad/pseuds/Soledad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five times Toshiko Sato didn't sleep with John Watson and one time she did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Convergence 2/7

**CONVERGENCE  
by Soledad**

**Part 02 - The Speckled Blonde**

The second time it _almost_ happens is when Toshiko nearly dies.

It has to do – how could it happen otherwise – with one of Sherlock’s cases; the one that later becomes known as the case of _The Speckled Blonde_ , thanks to John’s blog.

The case has a mundane enough start. A woman in her early thirties, with dyed blonde hair, is found in her bed. At the first examination John can find no obvious case of death, save for the strange red speckles all over her body. Whatever they are.  
  
The first surprise is that Toshiko happens to know the victim, Julia Stone. Apparently, they went to grammar school together. With her help, John finds Julia’s sister, Helen, who tells him that Julia did feel a bit run down for the last few weeks.

“But I figured she was stressed ‘cause she was getting married, soon,” she says dejectedly, as if it were her fault that she hasn’t noticed something might have been wrong with her sister.

John tries to comfort her but fails. Fortunately, Toshiko is with him and takes over the task. John has never been more grateful for her presence.

It’s only after he’s witnessed Molly performing the autopsy that he discovers two small puncture marks on the victim’s right ankle. The blood work comes back showing traces of an unidentified poison in her bloodstream.

“The obvious answer is that she was bitten by something, presumably some kind of snake,” Sherlock declares in utter self-confidence. “John, start phoning the local zoos. See if any snakes have recently escaped. And you,” he turns to Toshiko, “tell me about her family.”

Toshiko tries to protest because honestly, she’s swamped with work assigned to her by Mycroft, but nobody says no to Sherlock Holmes. That is, they can try, but they end up doing his bidding anyway. It’s just like a natural law.

While neither of the zoos is complaining about reptile escapees, Toshiko finds out that Julia lived with Helen and their stepfather, a certain Dr Roylott. The latter is apparently a big name in cosmetics. Even guest starred on Connie Price’s show a few times.

“Both seem genuinely devastated by Julia’s death,” Toshiko says, after a brief visit to the Roylott house. “Her fiancé, though, this Percy Armitage character, is a strange one. I never saw a man with such a bushy beard outside of historic films. He also keeps snakes. Could one of those have bitten Julia?”

“Have you asked him?” Sherlock counters.

Toshiko rolls her eyes. “Of course I have. He said Julia hated the snakes so wouldn't go near them.”

“Not voluntarily anyway,” Sherlock mutters and ignores them both for the rest of the day.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
The case goes on for a few days but they don't seem to be getting anywhere. Sherlock is convinced that Julia was murdered, but he still cannot find any hard proof.

“A snake can’t get into someone's bedroom, kill them in their sleep and then leave without being spotted by anyone else,” he argues. “We need to keep an eye on this Percy Armitage.”

Unfortunately for them, it turns out Percy has an alibi for the night Julia was killed and he keeps his snakes at his own flat. Sherlock still isn’t convinced about his innocence.

‘It’s obvious that he was involved but wherever we turn, we hit a brick wall,” he admits through gritted teeth. “I’m overlooking something important! Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

The case has become a four-patch problem in the meantime.

Toshiko feels that she can’t really care anymore. She’s feeling tired and run down, which isn’t really surprising, considering that she’s just recently returned from a lengthy mission abroad and never had the chance to rest and recover from it. So she just tries to shut herself into 221C and avoid Sherlock as well as it’s possible with the madman living right above her head.

She panics a bit, though, when the strange red speckles appear on her arms and chest and turns to John for help. John takes her to the surgery where he sometimes works, for a blood test. Traces of the same unknown poison can be found in her bloodstream that was in Julia’s.

“That’s impossible!” Sherlock declares. “They haven’t had any contact for twenty years or so.”

John just shakes his head. “The blood test doesn’t lie, Sherlock.”

“Something must have changed then, and recently,” Sherlock decides. “She’s been living here longer than I have, and she was never ill. We need to retract her actions since Julia’s death.”

They recruit Mrs Hudson to help them, as she’s the only one who actually knows Toshiko’s routine. She goes through the flat with them and shakes her head. Nothing unusual there. Then they enter the bath, and her eyes focus on the bottle of expensive-looking bubble bath standing on the rim of her bathtub.

“That one,” she says. “That’s new. I never saw her using the brand before.”

Sherlock picks up the bottle and reads the label. “It’s Roylott’s,” he says. “Developed by his company.”

He bounces up the stairs to research the brand on John’s laptop – and turns up empty-handed.

“Apparently, it isn't yet available in the shops,” he says. “Where can Tosh possibly have it from?”

“Why don’t you ask her?” John returns dryly. Sherlock shakes his head.

“Boring. You go and talk to her. I’ll take the bottle to _Bart’s_ and analyse the contents.”

He finds a slow-acting poison in the bubble bath.

“Every time somebody uses it, they'd be slowly killing themselves,” he explains to a shocked Molly. He then calls John to see what he’s found out from Toshiko.

“She got the bottle from Helen, who had it from her stepfather,” John tells him on the phone. “He apparently promised that it had already been tested and was safe. But Helen didn’t like the scent, so she gave it Toshiko as a gift.”

“A gift that would make the Borgias proud,” Sherlock mutters.

“You mean it wasn’t an accident?” John asks, shocked. “Or possibly an allergic reaction?”

Sherlock snorts. “Oh, do try to use that pathetic little brain of yours, John! How could it _possibly_ be an accident? Even if Julia and Helen would share the same allergic tendencies, how high the possibility would be of Tosh suffering from the same allergies? And before you’d try to calculate, I happen to know that the only things she’s allergic to are vasoactive amines.”

John needs a minute to realise the meaning of that. “You mean bananas make her vomit?” he clarifies. That’s one important piece of information that he files away for later use.

Sherlock is ignoring him. “Therefore, we can deduce that the stepfather killed Julia in cold blood and was planning to do the same with Helen,” he says. “He put the puncture marks in Julia’s ankle to turn the police’s attention to Percy and his snakes. Oh, very clever! He couldn’t know, of course, that Helen would give the bottle to Tosh.”

“So, what are we gonna do now?” John demands.

“Now we go and confront the man before he manages to kill his other step-daughter, too,” Sherlock replies in his _I’m-talking-to-an-idiot_ tone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *  
They rush to the Roylott house, but when they reach it, it’s too late – Roylott’s already dead. He's hung himself from the kitchen light-fitting. They search the house for a note that might explain why the man wanted to kill his step-daughters but find nothing.

“Perhaps they reminded him of his late wife?” John suggests. “Or it could be about money. Or perhaps he was just mad.”

Sherlock’s only answer is a derisive snort, but he cannot come up with any better ideas, either. So they call the police to wrap up the case and leave, as there isn’t anything else for them to do. Some questions can never be answered; for Helen it will be particularly painful, never to learn the true reason.

John spends the night in an uncomfortable chair at Toshiko’s bedside. When he wakes up in the morning, his back hurts like a bitch and his neck is painfully stiff. But he’s still holding Toshiko’s hand, and somehow it’s worth the discomfort.


End file.
